My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleyexpected me, in spirit, to wear the white plume of Navarre. Great meetings underfrequent attack over a long period resembled in some respects a battlefield, but with adifference. The task of a general is complicated if he never knows on arrival at thescene of action whether he will have to deliver a speech which convinces the audiencewith appeal to reason, and in conclusion moves some of them by the passionateappeal of idealism to the ardours and sacrifice of a new mission in life; or whether hewill have to lead a fight to eject well-organised and armed hooligans before anyargument can be addressed to the quiet and orderly British audience. The twoperformances require different moods, as even Bonaparte discovered, when Lucienpulled him out of the Assembly riot at the time of Brumaire; both capacities wereoften needed, for the speech still had to be made when the roughs had been thrownout.We won these fights without exception, from the early days when, after repeatedwarnings and continued uproar, I used to come down from the platform myself to leadthe fight, as in the first battle at Birmingham. Our assailants on that occasionsubsequently had the effrontery to charge me with assault, but after hearing theevidence, it did not take the Birmingham stipendiary long to dismiss the case. Later,we were organised with groups of stewards each under an individual leader coveringevery section of the hall. The rule was never to move until I gave the order from theplatform, on which I remained throughout at this stage of organisation. It was myhabit to give three clear warnings before ordering the ejection of those causingdisorder, with the minimum force necessary, and once we were properly organised theprocess did not take long. The audience who had come to hear the speech remainedafter the fight because they were witnesses of its necessity. So many people saw whathappened at first hand throughout the country that the wild abuse of our allegedbrutality did not in those days cut much ice outside the narrow and interested circlesof its manufacture.The effect on us all was very like a return to war conditions, with which many of uswere familiar. For me, it was a sharp change from the normal politics to which I hadbecome accustomed during the long interval, and I am often asked to describe mypersonal feelings on such an occasion as Olympia in 1934. After that meeting I wasallowed to speak briefly over the BBC; the last occasion I was permitted to use themedium of that organisation which in recent years has so frequently employed otherpeople to discuss me. Afterwards, one of their commentators said in effect that to himthe most shocking part of the terrible occasion was that throughout the meeting andmy subsequent talk over the radio I had been so inhumanly calm. This remark trulyastonished me, for I could not see that the necessary business of throwing a bunch ofroughs out of Olympia should have caused emotional disturbance to anyone who hadexperience of air and trench fighting in the previous war. Where did they think wecame from? The men in local command could not be rattled then, and I saw lessreason to be excited in the Olympia fight, even if the other side had razors and ourmen only had their fists. In fact, it is quite essential on such occasions to remain calm.If you have a small command of a platoon, or troop, as it is called in our service,everyone looks to you if the balloon goes up in an attack, sudden bombardment, orother alarm. You develop the habit of remaining calm and giving clear orders. It wasthe same in the larger command of blackshirt politics. But there was an added testbecause spotlights were focused on the platform, and sometimes strong cinema lights256 of 424